The pair were ordained at the Cathedral of Prato, Italy earlier this month.

Service and accompaniment

The newly ordained Father Giulio Vanucci said while he had enjoyed being in a punk band - and later a bricklayer for a Catholic housing apostolate - he's looking forward to being of service to others.

"For me, being a priest means putting oneself even more at service, it means taking care of everything and everyone" he said.

Former policeman Father Michele Di Stefano wants to accompany others.

"Today is not a goal achieved but rather the beginning of a new path, even an exhausting one" Di Stefano said.

"But I am sure that I am not alone and that I have God's help. My intention is to be close to people who suffer, who feel alone."

God looks for specific people to enter the priesthood said bishop of Prato, Giovanni Nerbini, in his homily at the ordination.

"The Lord has not chosen administrators or supermen but simple and always generous people" he said.

• CNA

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops commissioned the Center for Applied Research (CARA) at Georgetown University for an annual survey.

From January to March of this year, CARA surveyed almost 400 seminarians who are scheduled to be ordained to the priesthood in 2024.

Survey findings

More than 80 percent of respondents were to be ordained diocesan priests, while almost 20 percent were from a religious order. The largest group of respondents, 80 percent, were studying at seminaries in the Midwest.

The survey found that half of the graduating 2024 seminarians, "ordinands," will be ordained at 31 years or younger — younger than the recent average. Since 1999, ordinands were on average in their mid-30s, trending slightly younger.

This year's ordinands were involved in their local communities growing up.

As many as 51 percent had attended parish youth groups, while 33 percent were involved in Catholic campus ministry.

A significant number (28 percent) of the ordinands were Boy Scouts, while 24 percent reported that they had participated in the Knights of Columbus or Knights of Peter Claver.

Involvement in parish ministry was also a key commonality for this year's ordinands.

Surveyors found that 70 percent of ordinands were altar servers before attending seminary.

Another 48 percent often read at Mass, while 41 percent distributed Communion as extraordinary ministers.

In addition, just over 30 percent taught as catechists.

The path to priesthood

Most seminarians first considered the priesthood when they were as young as 16 years old, according to the survey. But the process of affirming that vocation and studying to be a priest takes, on average, 18 years.

Encouragement helps make a priest, according to the CARA survey.

Almost 90 percent of ordinands said that someone (most often a parish priest, friend, or parishioner) encouraged them to consider becoming priests.

Discerning the priesthood is not always an easy path, and 45 percent of ordinands said they were discouraged from considering the priesthood by someone in their life.

That person was most often a friend, classmate at school, mother, father, or other family member.

The survey also found that most ordinands had Catholic parents and were baptized Catholic as infants.

Eighty-two percent of ordinands reported that both their parents were Catholic when they were children, while 92 percent of ordinands were baptized Catholic as an infant.

Of those who became Catholic later in life, most converted at age 23. Read more

• Kate Quiñones is a staff writer for Catholic News Agency and a fellow of the College Fix.

That is certainly true of the picture above - it is worth many thousands of words as we approach the synod in October.

Dare I say it, it is worth a thousand of the numbered statements in Denzinger!

Please study the picture closely.

It is typical of the signs one sees on the outskirts of villages and towns in Germany. The image of a building in yellow tells the viewer that the only church/chapel in the town is Catholic.

The letters and numbers tell the days and times when Catholics there gather to celebrate the Eucharist. 'Sa' is an abbreviation for Saturday, and 'So' for Sunday; the numbers are self-explanatory.

Now look more closely!

There used to be - in the time since the sign was put up - three celebrations: one on Saturday evening, and two on Sunday morning.

Now part of the sign has been painted over: there is now only one eucharistic assembly!

Why is this?

It could be that the population has dropped by 66 percent. But that cannot explain it since there is a big new housing estate nearby: the town is growing in population.

It could be that there are fewer people 'going to church.'

That is almost certainly the case. Rejection of the church has been increasing in recent years with more and more people formally renouncing their membership of the Catholic Church; and there has been a decrease in religious practice across the churches generally.

But would that explain why there is now only one Mass over a weekend instead of three? Of course not!

The real problem

The reason is not hard to find: it is due to there being not enough presbyters to preside over the assemblies - what is incorrectly referred to as either 'the priest shortage' or 'the vocations' crisis.'

It is the same story across diocese after diocese and country after country.

Fewer presbyters, older presbyters, and empty seminaries mean that the few men there are available being spread thinner and thinner. That is why the white paint has been applied to this sign to alter it.

We can engage in platitudes. I see one diocese claims that it is not 'closing parishes' but 'restructuring.' Such statements belong to the deceitful world of spin doctors rather than to those who claim to be successors of the apostles.

Many other dioceses try to avoid facing the issue by importing young presbyters from the developing world.

Are they not needed there?

Is there no need for them to help their own communities? Is this not a form of neo-colonialism - stripping the developing world of its assets for the sake of the rich countries?

Should not a presbyter emerge from out of the community: a basic sign of an inculturated liturgy?

Older and more tired

What has happened in this town is that where there used to be three presbyters in three towns, now there is one man travelling between them. You probably know a place near you where this is happening.

But the presbyters are old and often tired.

The assemblies are often too big - one cannot genuinely relate to a community of hundreds!

To imagine one can just 'scale up' the size of a congregation from one hundred to two hundred - or even more - without detriment to the level of participation in the liturgy is a failure to understand both how humans relate and the nature of a eucharistic celebration.

It is a gathering of family (we call each other 'brothers and sisters') and friends ('I call you friends' - Jesus) not a 'service provision event.'

Moreover, the presbyter has to pretend that each celebration is the centre and summit of his day - yet his demeanour may reveal his exhaustion.

Please do remember that is it less than a 100 years ago since celebrating two Masses on one day (except in an emergency) needed a special permission from the bishop - 'bination' was seen as most exceptional.

Most of the Orthodox churches still do not permit it.

Face the problem

Meet any group of presbyters and they will openly talk about the problem. Often as soon as a bishop enters the room, the discussion falls silent!

But if this problem is not addressed openly at the synod, then much of what it will discuss will have an air of unreality.

That sign is truly a sign for the times.

• Thomas O'Loughlin is a presbyter of the Catholic Diocese of Arundel and Brighton and professor-emeritus of historical theology at the University of Nottingham (UK).
• First published in La Croix. Republished with permission.
• His latest book is "Shaping the Assembly: How Our Buildings form us in Worship".

That will likely have a dramatic impact on how Catholicism may influence and interact with American social and political values.

The situation arises from the precipitous drop in vocations.

We still have bishops, priests, and deacons, of course, but there's no way to imagine a Church in which there's a priest for every parish—except by importing clergy from other countries.

Meanwhile, a recent study from the Catholic University of America shows a notable drop in the levels of trust and confidence that priests have in their bishops.

This "organisational" schism would be cause for concern in any organization, but especially in a religious one.

Almost two years ago, Pope Francis opened the instituted ministries of lector and acolyte to women, but that has failed to capture the attention of most women who already serve in the Church or would like to.

Among bishops, it has sparked even less enthusiasm.

The same could be said for the creation of the instituted ministry of catechist by Francis in May 2021.

In an evangelizing Church that wants to be all-ministerial, the very idea of ministry is still identified with ordination.

The predicament is even more pronounced for the ministry of bishops.

The post-conciliar crisis of the priesthood and religious orders is not surprising, given the perfunctory treatment Vatican II and its final documents gave to those ministries and their role in the Church.

But the bishop situation is surprising.

Vatican II was not just a council made by the bishops but also in some sense for the bishops: it offered them episcopal collegiality, a new language for local pastoral ministry, more control over diocesan clergy and, especially, over religious orders in their dioceses.

The very celebration of Vatican II was evidence that from thereon, the episcopacy would not only exist but matter.

The new USCCB leadership will be at the helm through the 2024 U.S. presidential election, when we may learn how much American Catholic support there is for American democracy.

Signs of an episcopal crisis are obvious:

• the high number of priests who are chosen to become bishops but who decline the appointment;
• the number of bishops resigning because of burnout;
• the cases of bishops quietly removed (and without any transparency, especially for the victims) by the Vatican over accusations or for being found guilty of abuse or cover-up.

This also all has significant impact on ecclesiology and Church governance—especially in the United States, as I've noted before, where the bishop's position has become more managerial and bureaucratic.

Functioning increasingly like the administrator of a mid- or large-sized firm, or even as a CEO overseeing legal, financial, and PR operations, the modern bishop is more and more at odds with the Patristic and Tridentine model that Vatican II had in mind when writing and approving the decree Christus dominus, as well as the constitution Lumen gentium.

Inspiring figures like St Charles Borromeo, bishop of Milan in the early stages of the application of the Council of Trent, commanded a degree of respect in the Church and in the public square that the Catholic episcopate cannot even imagine today.

In some cases, the job of bishop is interpreted to be more like an influencer selling products than a servant of Church unity as Vatican II imagined.

It further translates into a crisis of mission, something that's become clearer in the course of Francis's pontificate. Continue reading

When they arrive in New Zealand, it is planned that they will work to complete level 6.5 IELTS academic (English language), while living in their "home" dioceses in this country, so they can begin studies at Te Kupenga - Catholic Theological College, and apply to become seminarians.

NZ Catholic understands that the timing of their eventual arrival in New Zealand will depend on the New Zealand Government allowing foreign students to once again enter the country for study.

The sixteen will have to go through whatever MIQ or isolation requirements are in place when that happens.

Former Holy Cross College rector Msgr Brendan Daly has played a key role in arranging for the Vietnamese men to come to New Zealand.

Msgr Daly, who lectures in canon law at Te Kupenga Catholic Theological College's Auckland campus, has previously liaised with Church authorities in Vietnam to bring men to this country to study for the priesthood.

He told NZ Catholic that he was asked to get three seminarians for the Christchurch diocese a year ago.

"Then I was asked to get three for Wellington archdiocese.

"The requests just kept growing, so that there are one for Dunedin, four for Christchurch, three for Wellington, four for Palmerston North, two for Hamilton and three for Auckland diocese" he said.

Msgr Daly said that, in July last year, 200 young men sat the seminary entrance exam for Vinh-Thanh seminary in Vinh diocese in northern Vietnam, and 40 were accepted.

"I asked Bishop [Pierre Nguyen Van] Vien about the possibility of some of those who were not accepted for the seminary in Vietnam coming to New Zealand instead.

"Bishop Vien consulted with the Vinh seminary rector and the parish priests of prospective students, and during the next few months the students agreed to come.

"They were interviewed on zoom by Father Tien Cao, the vocation director in Christchurch, and myself.

"There was also a zoom call to each of their parents to obtain permission to bring their sons to New Zealand," he said.

Msgr Daly added that, before the first Vietnamese students came to Christchurch several years ago, he met with their parents in Vietnam and received permission to bring them to New Zealand.

"It was a very formal occasion for the parents who were formally dressed for the occasion. Then there was a meal afterwards".

The sixteen who have agreed to come to New Zealand have moved to Da Nang in Vietnam to study English.

"They are living in a three-storey house together, and their accommodation is being financed by the New Zealand dioceses on a pro-rata basis", Msgr Daly said.

These students are all aged in their 20s, and 15 have university degrees, he added.

"The sixteenth has studied music for several years and is very intelligent.

"The most common degree is Information Technology - one had a degree in English and there are several engineers and some accountants" he said.

Msgr Daly said that the 16 men "are committed Catholics who want to be priests.  They have good human qualities, are intelligent, and the bishop, who studied in Australia, has judged that they will adjust well and adapt to a society like New Zealand's".

Parishioners in this country should "welcome them warmly, as they welcome so many immigrants who are so much a part of our parish communities now in New Zealand", he added.

NZ Catholic asked Msgr Daly to comment on why he thinks the Church in Vietnam produces so many potential vocations to the priesthood and religious life. He said "The Church in Vietnam has experienced a great deal of persecution over the centuries. Possibly there have been hundreds of thousands of martyrs in Vietnam.

"The people are very conscious of the heroes in the faith who have preceded them. That helps inspire young people to accept vocations to priesthood and religious life".

Msgr Daly also expressed the hope that the example of the men from Vietnam might encourage more vocations in New Zealand.

Source

• First published NZ Catholic (Republished with permission)
• Image:NZ Catholic
  

"I suppose people are a bit down over the Church. Certainly, vocations are down," says Father Ray Kelly, the 65 year-old pastor of St. Brigid′s & St. Mary′s parish at Oldcastle, County Meath.

"I am hoping Pope Francis, when he comes next month, will help," he said, pondering that the situation of Catholic Ireland is actually "a lot better than the media portrays."

Kelly went viral on the Internet the first time in 2014, after singing an adapted version of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" song in a wedding.

It was supposedly just another wedding day in his church, but the video surprisingly got more than 64 million views on YouTube.

More recently, Kelly resurfaced on social media for his participation in the reality show "Britain's Got Talent."

The priest got a standing ovation for a moving version of "Everybody Hurts" by R.E.M.

He did not go through to the final of the TV show - when he planned to sing Simon and Garfunkel's "Bridge Over Troubled Water" - but he was happy to get to the semi-finals.

Above all, Kelly believes the experience made him not only an Internet sensation, but also transformed his ministry.

He has been reaching out to people who suffer and motivating them to "hold on."

"One particular lady sent me an e-mail. She was suffering from chronic pain for years and she had her suicide letter written. She told me: ‘I happened to go to YouTube and see you singing ‘Everybody Hurts,' and the Holy Spirit just came over me. I am living with pain, but I am also living with hope,'" he says. Continue reading

• Image: YouTube Britain's Got Talent

God only knows how many seminaries, monasteries, convents and churches will close because fewer people are being called to lives of religious service, he says. Read more

But only five of Rome's 11 new priests are Italians, having done their formation at the diocese's major seminary. The other six who will be incardinated into the pope's diocese are non-Italians. They are members of the Neo-Catechumenal Way.

They did their preparation for ministry at the movement's Redemptoris Mater Seminary and will likely be sent abroad to serve in one of its many missionary apostolates or parishes.

The ordination Mass is taking place on the 55th annual World Day of Prayer for Vocations. And in earlier-released message for the occasion, Francis said:

"Each one of us is called - whether to the lay life in marriage, to the priestly life in the ordained ministry, or to a life of special consecration - in order to become a witness of the Lord, here and now."

"In the diversity and the uniqueness of each and every vocation, personal and ecclesial, there is a need to listen, discern and live this word (of God) that calls to us from on high and, while enabling us to develop our talents, makes us instruments of salvation in the world and guides us to full happiness," he said.

In short, the pope focused on all the various types of Christian callings. But he did not say anything about what almost everyone recognizes today as a very real "vocations crisis" in the Church - especially regarding the priesthood.

Some loathe clericalism, others revel in it

There are various aspects to what might be better called a priesthood crisis.

La Croix International recently published two articles that looked at one of those aspects - the clericalist mentality that seems to be a disease (or at least a temptation) inherent in the very ethos of the ordained.

If you missed those articles the first time, please take a look at Joe Holland's "Get rid of the clergy - But keep Holy Orders" and Andrew Hamilton's "Clerical culture produces poor fruit."

Admittedly, these essays are dealing with a subjective element of the priesthood and how it likely relates to the current vocations crisis.

People will debate whether clericalism is turning young men away from exploring a call to priesthood or whether, on the other hand, it is attracting questionable candidates who actually revel in it.

There are other subjective issues relating to the vocations/priesthood crisis that need to be urgently looked at, as well. And, at least on paper, the Congregation for the Clergy has issued guidelines to help bishops and people involved in formation programs to do just that.

While the quality of seminaries and the priests they produce are largely subjective categories, quantity is not.

Objectively, the figures do not lie. It is a fact that the numbers of young men joining the seminary and being ordained presbyters are not keeping pace with the overall increase in the numbers of baptized Catholics. Nowhere.

Not even in Africa, where some people would have us believe the situation is not so dire. And where they believe that the "vocations-rich" African Church will become the protagonist of some new, "reverse evangelization" of the now greatly secularized, established Churches of Europe and the developed world.

They are very wrong.

Stats and the vocation gap

The latest Vatican-published Statistical Yearbook of the Church shows that in Africa there are currently just over 5,000 Catholics for every priest. It's even worse throughout Latin America where the ratio is upwards of 7,000 to one.

Compare that to the Churches in Europe, North America and Oceania where the figure hovers around 2,000 Catholics for every priest.

There are a number of possible steps that could be taken to shorten this widening gap.

But the most likely to be accepted at this time, also for historical and practical reasons, would be to change the criteria for admission to Holy Orders by expanding the pool of candidates to include married men of proven virtue - the so-called viri probati. Continue reading

"This is the Church's blind spot. It's there, very present, but nobody talks about it. We don't see them," she says.

Lesegretain, who is single, believes the relationship between the Church and single people should be looked at from a vocational perspective.

"For centuries, we heard that there are basically two vocations: the majority, called to marriage, and a minority, called to the priestly or religious life.

"When we are neither, we are led to believe that we have no vocation. And that's terrible, completely wrong and extremely devaluing. As soon as we are baptized, we have a vocation.

"This vocation is not related to your status. This status is a means to live this vocation," she says.

"At a time when priestly or religious vocations are falling, lay singles can be a chance for the Church."

Lesegretain says this is a delicate situation because singles might be upset with God.

Some will be asking "Am I forgotten by God?"

"We have anger toward God, and sometimes we do not dare to say it because we say that he loves us … So we are caught in a paradox," she adds.

"Do I accept to be looked at by God as I am, in this poverty? Because celibacy is a fragility, a poverty: It is not written on your forehead, but almost."

Lesegretain, who is often called to speak at conferences on the subject, says over the years she has met at least 2,000 single laypeople looking for a Christian meaning to their celibacy and a place in the Church.

She says she struggled with her faith and celibacy in her mid-30s.

"I did not see the meaning of celibacy as a Christian."

This led her to ask herself questions like "What does the Lord want from me?"

She says the social and personal pressures as a single person become sufferings for many single people.

"As a Christian, we were raised in the idea of giving ourselves, of loving one's life. And to whom am I giving my life?" she says she recalled wondering.

"I have heard many cases of singles who were seated at children's tables at family reunions. It's humiliating," she says.

"It's as if singles don't count. On top of that, we often end up feeling guilty. We say it's our fault, we live it as a failure. I am not enough this or that. We always think it's our fault."

Source

• Crux
• Image: Cruxnow.com

These young men and women are temporarily professed religious living and working in Fiji.

Watch the video

They come from a number of different congregations: Marist Sisters, Missionaries of the Sacred Heart (MSC), Salesians, Sisters of Compassion, Sisters of Our Lady of Nazareth (SOLN), Columbans, Picpus Fathers (SS.CC) and Marist Fathers.

The idea was to have the practical experience of being with and working with people.

The following day they spent time reflecting and sharing about their experience before celebrating mass and playing some sports.

Housing Assistance and Relief Trust (HART Fiji) is an organisation that works to provide housing for poorer people.

It was founded in 1970 by the Fiji Council of Churches. It not only works to provide housing but also to advocate and support those in the community with the aim of assisting them to become more resourceful.

Source

• Supplied

Fr Brendan Hoban of the Association of Catholic Priests said that there is a risk that old fashioned pastoral approaches by overseas priests could empty some Irish parishes in a decade.

Two Nigerian priests have recently started ministering in Kilmore diocese.

Two more are scheduled to start work in Clonfert diocese and there are plans to bring Indian priests to Waterford diocese.

"Priests are not like footballers who can be transferred for a given fee from Real Madrid to Manchester United and hardly notice the change, as what they do and how and where they do is exactly the same," Fr Hoban said.

"Priesting is different. Language matters. Culture matters. Tradition matters. History matters.

"Understanding is about more than knowing the words.

"Appreciating the weave and waft of Irish society is essential to ministering to people's needs at parish level," he said.

Fr Hoban noted the history of Irish priests going on mission to other nations, but said that missioning in Ireland now is completely different to past practices.

He expressed concern over the pastoral styles African and Indian priests might bring to Ireland, trying to replicate those from their homelands

If priests "are used to not allowing laity to be involved in worship, how long will they survive in an Irish parish?", Fr Hoban asked.

"If priests are used to not allowing women to be involved in parish life, except in a peripheral and patronising way, how long will they survive in an Irish parish?

"Or more to the point how long will an Irish parish survive them? They could empty our emptying churches in a decade," he said.

Last year, the ACP asked Ireland's bishops to forward a request to Rome that proven married men be ordained as priests.

Sources

• Irish Times
• Irish Times
• Image: Irish Independent

In fact, according to Pew Research Centre data the numbers of religious in America has declined dramatically since the 1960's.

However, they are on the increase again in some places such as the United Kingdom, with the most attractive institutes interestingly being the more traditional orders, such as those who follow traditional prayer routines and still wear habits.

This week The Wall Street Journal published insights into the life of 30 year old Sister Bethany Madonna together with seven other Sisters of Life also in their 30s.

Based in New York, the Sisters of Life is a reasonably new order established in 1991 by New York Cardinal John O'Connor. Since then, it has thrived.

The impetus for the order came when Cardinal O'Connor visited Dachau, the site of a Nazi death camp. It moved him to start a religious community of women with a fourth vow to protect the sacredness of every human life, in addition to the traditional vows of poverty, chastity and obedience.

Canonically speaking, they are sisters and not nuns, working in the community as they do, rather than living a contemplative life, though they do spend at least four hours in prayer every day.

Earlier this year, the New York Post expressed concern at the city's declining birth rate and the plight of New York families. A significant number of births are from the city's poorest neighborhoods — nearly 6 in 10 moms were on Medicaid or government-financed health insurance for the needy:

The city's birth rate is the lowest since 1936 — having steadily declined over the past decade, according to data obtained by The Post.

"This is a very troubling trend," said Conservative Party state chairman Mike Long. "The economy is hurting families and the development of families … If we don't produce enough young people, society won't be able to pay for Social Security and Medicaid," he warned. Continue reading

Sources

• MercatorNet article written by Shannon Roberts
• Image: Women Speak for Themselves

The pilgrimage will begin at Cape Reinga, which is the northern most point on the mainland of New Zealand.

It will take about 33 days, including some rest days.

Each night the pilgrims will stay in presbyteries and parishioners' homes.

They will be accompanied by a van that will carry their food, clothing, spares and safety equipment.

The van may also be used to transport any rider who is overcome with fatigue.

The seminarians will be speaking about vocations in each of the dioceses as they pass through.

They are planning their journey so that they arrive in Christchurch on 4 December in time to attend the ordination of three Christchurch deacons who are students at Holy Cross.

While they will be providing their own bikes, the seminary students are appealing for help to meet other costs such as the flights home, Ferry tickets to cross Cook Strait - they apparently lack sufficient faith to walk on water.

"We are asking for your prayers and support that this experience may be fruitful in the lives of young people today, encouraging them to 'cast out into the deep' by following Jesus in today's world.

Their blog will be updated regularly, including while they are actually on the journey.

Source

• Supplied
• Inage: Facebook

Its purpose is to promote vocations to the priesthood, women and men religious, diaconate and consecrated life through prayer and education, and to renew prayers and support for those who are considering one of these particular vocations.

In 2013, Pope Francis declared that a Year of Consecrated Life (YCL) be celebrated throughout the world.

YCL began on the First Sunday of Advent, November 30, 2014.

It will close on the World Day of Consecrated Life, February 2, 2016.

Cardinal John Dew, the Archbishop of Wellington has invited religious women and men have come together to celebrate the year of Consecrated life on the feast of St Mary MacKillop.

Midday prayer will be prayed in of the Church in St Joseph's Church, Mt Victoria.

Lunch and social time will follow.

4 people, at various stages of lives life have offered some thoughts on vocations.

• Neil Vaney has been a Marist religious and priest for 46 years
• Bryan Buenger was recently ordained for the Diocese of Palmerston North
• Daniel Kleinsman is a first year seminarian
• Elizabeth Julian is a Sister of Mercy and a lecturer and distance learning education co-ordinator for The Catholic Institute of Aoteraroa New Zealand.

Read what they have to say

Source

• w2.vatican.va
• wn.catholic.org.nz
• Image: vocationnetwork.org

There are now 59 men in training at Corpus Christi, the highest number since the 1970s.

They come from at least nine Australian archdioceses and dioceses.

In 1999, the number at Corpus Christi was 28.

Twenty years ago, the number was about 20.

Current rector Fr Brendan Lane at that time saw an institution in decline, Fairfax reported.

"I thought with attitudes as they were, we're finished," said Fr Lane, then a parish priest.

Now there are not enough rooms at Corpus Christi to house the seminarians and an appeal has been launched to fund an extension.

"This turnaround has been a real surprise I think to us, especially with the bad publicity," Fr Lane said.

"But in fact the more bad publicity we've had, the more students we get.

"I think it probably works in a reverse way. It says that we're trying to do something about the problems we've got."

"Why are these guys coming in now?" Fr Lane asked.

"I think people are going to need hope."

Third year seminarian Nathan Rawlins offered a simple explanation as to why the seminary is full.

"Now people are realising how great a gift it is to be a Catholic."

The seminarians reflect the ethnic mix of Australia today, and by extension, the Catholic congregations.

They are drawn from 11 countries of origin: Australian, India, Croatia, the Philippines, Vietnam, New Zealand, Nigeria, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Poland and Indonesia.

The Fairfax article explored the possibility that the Pope Francis effect had boosted seminary numbers.

The seminarians now in training would have been influenced by John Paul II and Benedict, it noted.

As Daryl Montecillo, who will be ordained this year, put it: "We trust in God regardless of whoever God gives us as pope. But we thank God for Pope Francis, that's for sure."

Sources

• Sydney Morning Herald
• Image: Sydney Morning Herald

Forty-five women chose to pursue their vocations last year, the highest number since the 1980s.

The number for 2014 was up from 30 the previous year.

The figures, released by the National Office for Vocation in England and Wales, showed that 18 women entered enclosed orders and 27 entered apostolic ones last year.

Sr Cathy Jones, the Religious Life Promoter at the NOV, attributed the rise to an increase in discernment groups, as well as taster weekends at convents and outreach on the Internet.

She also pointed to increased self-confidence among apostolic orders linked to positive publicity around their work with vulnerable people such as trafficked women.

"The Church is trying to help people neutrally to discover God's call - and it's about God, not about this order surviving, not about our agenda," she said.

She said that the number of women entering religious life would never reach the level of 40 years ago.

But the Assumption sister predicted steady growth as the Church increased opportunities for discernment, either in groups or with a spiritual director.

"Some have done what they were always expected to - they've got their job in the city, a nice flat, car, boyfriend - and it's not enough.

"They're not saying, as they might have 50 years ago, that religious life is a better way to get to God.

"They're saying: ‘I'm not quite sure why, and I think I'm completely not worthy, but it seems that God's calling me to this'."

NOV director Fr Christopher Jamison said the Church had moved from treating vocations as "recruitment to discernment".

He said that young people "value their freedom, and don't like to feel they are being dragooned".

The low point for women entries to religious life was 2004, when there were only seven in England and Wales.

The number of men entering religious life in 2014 dropped from 22 the previous year to 18.

Sources

• The Tablet
• Catholic Herald
• Image: The Telegraph

The Pope was speaking to a conference of religious formation directors in Rome on Saturday.

He told the 1200 directors that they must be "gravely attentive" to those they are guiding.

This is so that "the eventual crisis of quantity does not result in a much graver crisis of quality".

"Vocational discernment is important," Francis said, according to an article in the National Catholic Reporter.

He continued: "All the people who know the human personality - may they be psychologists, spiritual fathers, spiritual mothers - tell us that young people who unconsciously feel they have something unbalanced or some problem of mental imbalance or deviation unconsciously seek strong structures that protect them, to protect themselves."

"There is the discernment: to know to say no," said the Pope, referring to formation directors who tell young people that religious life may not be for them.

But Francis also encouraged the directors not to "chase away" such young people.

"Like you accompany the entry, accompany also the exit, so that he or she finds their way in life, with the needed help," he said.

Pope Francis said it is sad when a young person who has been considering religious life chooses another path, and "this is hard."

"But it is also your martyrdom," he told the directors.

"And the failures, these failures from the point of view of the formation director, can foster the continuing path of formation in the director."

"Some say that the consecrated life is paradise on Earth," the Pope joked.

"No. If anything, [it is] the purgatory! But go forward with joy, go forward with joy."

In a report last year, the Vatican stated that the higher numbers of people in religious life in the United States in the 1960s was an historical aberration.

Sources

• National Catholic Reporter
• Image: Washburn Chamber

According to US Conference of Catholic Bishops figures, there are 595 men in the "class of 2015", up from 477 in 2014 and 497 in 2013.

The 2015 class of men to be ordained to the priesthood report that they were, on average, about 17years old when they first considered a vocation to the priesthood.

They were encouraged to consider a vocation by an average of four people.

Seven in 10 (71 per cent) say they were encouraged by a parish priest, as well as friends (46 per cent), parishioners (45 per cent), and mothers (40 per cent).

These figures were taken from a Georgetown University-based Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate survey of potential 2015 US ordinands, to which there were 411 respondents.

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Ascension Press just released a vocations video featuring Fr. Joshua.

"I Will Follow", is a short film created to encourage men to consider a vocation to the priesthood.

It is an excerpt from Altaration: The Mystery of the Mass Revealed, which presents the Mass and the priesthood to Catholic teens. Watch video

In an address to the Congregation for Clergy on October 3, Pope Francis asked bishops to think of the good of the people of God and to study the itinerary of vocations carefully.

Vocations are a treasure from God, which are not made to "enrich" the individual alone, the Pontiff noted.

"Every vocation is for the mission, and the mission of ordained ministers is evangelisation," the Pope observed.

"The first form of evangelisation is the witness of fraternity and of communion between priests and bishop," he said.

The Pope also said he doesn't want clergy to have a limited view of themselves as being "professionals".

Instead, priests should be "free of every spiritual worldliness" and aware "that is it their lives that evangelise rather than their works".

"He who is called to the ministry is not the 'master' of his vocation, but rather the administrator of a gift that God has entrusted to him for the good of all the people, or rather for all humanity, even those who have drifted away from religious practice or do not profess faith in Christ".

Pope Francis added that "at the same time, all the Christian community is the custodian of the treasure of these vocations, destined to its service, and must always be aware of its task of promoting, welcoming and accompanying them with affection".

Similarly, the Pope reminded the clergy that they too must play their role in formation.

"This involves protecting and nurturing vocations, so that they bear mature fruit."

He noted that Jesus did not call his disciples by saying to them "come, I will explain to you", or "follow me, I will teach you".

"The formation Christ offered his disciples instead took the form of 'come and follow me', 'do as I do', and this is the method that today, too, the Church must offer her ministers."

Source

• Vatican Information Service
• Image: Catholic Herald